Guild Wars 2

Recently I’ve been facing thieves who hit stealth the moment I attack. That’s fine, just wait for them to attack….they attack, the I get a few hits in and they immediately hit stealth again.
Waiting…they come back with full HP a few seconds later, I attack and they hit stealth. Waiting…this time a bunch of my teammates come along. They catch the thief mid-attack, he hits stealth again.
The thief simply runs around multiple enemies with absolutely no fear of getting killed because stealth is a guaranteed escape. This is something I would expect a bunker guardian or warrior to do, except at least we can SEE them and attack them.

This has led me to conclude that thief stealth abilities either have an extremely short cooldown (5 secs?), or they have multiple stealth abilities which let them stay in stealth infinitely long.

Ultimately no matter how many enemies are there, it doesn’t matter to a thief because he can jump in the middle of all of them, kill/stomp all the downed people in stealth (or blind field), then just stealth away. This is on top of their evasion, mobility and damage. Obviously it can’t be some 30/30/30/30/30 build but there are definitely builds which can get a solid compromise between everything, i.e. multiple strengths.

Seems to be beyond broken.

Thief OP nurf thief.

1. Black powder bomb, 40 second cooldown
2. Black powder shot + HS (the infamous d/p)
3. CnD on contact
4. on steal if traited
5. on rez if traited (poor decision if traited)
6. Shadow refuge if they remain in the aoe for the duration, otherwise they are revealed
7. SB #2 on a smoke field from either smoke screen or bps (assuming no targets are hit)
8. When they hit 25% health, 90 second cooldown (aweful trait though)
9. Hide in shadows healing skill, 30 second cooldown
10. Miscelanous traits such as instinctual response, decent of shadows.
11. Various stolen skills, such as throw tuft/feathers, etc.

Oh and btw stealth =/= invincible. The number of stealth skills we have has 0 relation to our ability to out class others, thief is dangerously overrated it’s just new players and players who are just starting wvw/pvp don’t quite grasp it yet.

NinjaEd.3946:

1. Black powder bomb, 40 second cooldown
2. Black powder shot + HS (the infamous d/p)
3. CnD on contact
4. on steal if traited
5. on rez if traited (poor decision if traited)
6. Shadow refuge if they remain in the aoe for the duration, otherwise they are revealed
7. SB #2 on a smoke field from either smoke screen or bps (assuming no targets are hit)
8. When they hit 25% health, 90 second cooldown (aweful trait though)
9. Hide in shadows healing skill, 30 second cooldown
10. Miscelanous traits such as instinctual response, decent of shadows.
11. Various stolen skills, such as throw tuft/feathers, etc.

Oh and btw stealth =/= invincible. The number of stealth skills we have has 0 relation to our ability to out class others, thief is dangerously overrated it’s just new players and players who are just starting wvw/pvp don’t quite grasp it yet.

OMG thats 11 ways to stealth, thats kitten OP!

As a new thief, that is an extremely helpful list. Ty for taking the time to put that together.

Personally I don’t mind running into a thief who runs away. It’s ok. Other threads have mentioned all the classes have something like that. I didn’t build my elementalist to run, so I die more than most lol. Players who don’t have great skillz should have an option to avoid combat. Why should they be fair game for anyone who walks by?

Not knowing the class as well as I should yet, it has been my experience coming up against them in an elementalist that the ones who stealth alot do alot less damage, and run. The dangerous ones are those you see. I’m just saying, those are a lot of skills, utilities, and traits to pop, many for no damage.

Baladir.2736:

Personally I don’t mind running into a thief who runs away. It’s ok.

It’s not “runs away”. It’s denying your team 5 points from the kill, and every time he gets away he is at another node causing an unbalanced fight finishing-off weakened enemies there. It’s called “roaming” and no other class can even TOUCH thieves at doing that role, not in SPvP and not even in WvW.

Baladir.2736:

Other threads have mentioned all the classes have something like that. I didn’t build my elementalist to run, so I die more than most lol. Players who don’t have great skillz should have an option to avoid combat. Why should they be fair game for anyone who walks by?

1) “All the classes have something like that” – hell no, I have no idea where you read this. All classes have DEFENSIVE abilities/builds, sure, but the only classes that can simply vanish mid-combat to reset their health (or run away) is Thief and Mesmer. Every other class is still targetable by damage, immobilizes, knockdowns, CC, etc. But you can’t damage/CC a target that has gone invisible, in half a second they could have run in any direction.
2) Elementalists don’t run, lol. They die. A lot. Ele’s who pick defensive builds do such pathetic damage that it’s laughable. Take this from someone who has been playing Ele since launch.
3) “Players who don’t have great skillz should have an option to avoid combat” – ok I tried really hard to make sense out of this but I couldn’t. Did you mean “players who don’t have great skillz should play Thief or Mesmer”? But then currently the easiest Warrior, that’s what they should be playing.

Thieves aren’t particularly easy, but what they can do right now is DESTROY any other class that runs a damage/glassy build. Check the thread “Thieves driving away damage dealers” – https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/professions/balance/sPvP-Thieves-driving-away-damage-dealers/first

Stealth acts as both a highly offensive tool and highly defensive tool at the same time.

It’s WoW Rogues all over again. Stealth has allowed Rogues to reign supreme (or near the top of the food chain) for the majority of PvP seasons over the last 8 years.

Stealth and evades are pretty much the only defensive mechanics a thief has.
If you look at some youtube videos (Yishis’ outnumbered fights for example), you can see that the thief is by no means invincible while in stealth. Yishis in particular can land backstabs on stealthed enemies like it’s nothing, really.
You can get better with experience. You’ll eventually find all sorts of ways to attack thieves in stealth. If you tell me what class and build you’re using, I can probably tell you a few.

Remove Thief class from the game.

Buff up Warriors pls.
Buff up Necros pls.

Introduce Brain item in Gem store.

GW2 fixed.

@OP,

Go to Characters Panel, Create a thief, lvl him up to 80, equip him with exotics, go to WvW, find a Guardian/Warrior/Mesmer group, come back here and tell us how easy was that fight for you.

Baladir.2736:

As a new thief, that is an extremely helpful list. Ty for taking the time to put that together.

Personally I don’t mind running into a thief who runs away. It’s ok. Other threads have mentioned all the classes have something like that. I didn’t build my elementalist to run, so I die more than most lol. Players who don’t have great skillz should have an option to avoid combat. Why should they be fair game for anyone who walks by?

Not knowing the class as well as I should yet, it has been my experience coming up against them in an elementalist that the ones who stealth alot do alot less damage, and run. The dangerous ones are those you see. I’m just saying, those are a lot of skills, utilities, and traits to pop, many for no damage.

I can tell you all the counters and strengths/weaknesses of each one.

1. Blinding Powder (utility)
The 40 second cooldown is its weakness along with it taking a utility slot. Strength is that you can remain in stealth longer and nobody can tell you’re near unless they get blinded by it.

2. Black Powder + Heartseeker combo (Dagger/Pistol combo)
It’s strength is that it can be used regardless to range of target. It’s weakness is that it costs 9 initiative to use this combo…which isn’t much of a weakness IMO.

3. Cloak and Dagger (offhand Dagger #5)
It’s strength is that it can be used to basically ‘crowd surf’ enemies and guarantees a stealth on contact. It’s weakness is that you have to be close to the enemy, making it easy to counter if the enemy knows you’re there and that you’re using this.

4. Hidden Thief (trait)
It’s strength is that it’s a gap closer with stealth attached to it, plus giving you a useful stolen item. It’s weakness is that it won’t work if you aren’t close enough to steal if targeting somebody (5 second cooldown to retry), and like CnD requires you to get close to the enemy.

5. Merciful Ambush (trait)
It’s strength is that it can stealth both you and your downed target you’re rezzing, giving you a small reprieve before being attacked again. It’s weakness is that it’s only 2 seconds, it has an internal cooldown of 10 seconds, and that it’s taking up a trait slot in a line full of better Adept traits.

6. Shadow refuge (utility)
It’s strength is that it can give you and several others 15 seconds of stealth, very useful for bypassing enemies or hiding. It’s weakness is that if you leave the AoE at all, you get revealed. Also because of the size of the AoE and that you have to stay in it until it’s done, it makes you an easy target in WvW.

7. Smoke field blast finishers through Clusterbomb (Shortbow #2)
It’s strength is that you enter stealth and can also give it to several others for 3 seconds. It’s weakness is that you’re either switching between offhand pistol for Black Powder to do this, or you’re wasting a utility slot to have Smokescreen on and have to stand in its thin line.

8. Last Refuge (trait)
It’s strength is that it’s an auto Blinding Powder when you go under 25% health. The downside is that this can happen right when you’re attacking, instantly giving you reveal and screwing you over. This is also a mandatory trait down the Shadow Arts line, so you cannot turn it off.

9. Hide in Shadows (healing)
It’s strength is that it’s a burst heal while throwing you into stealth. It’s weakness is that 30 second cooldown and that because it has a cast time, it CAN be interrupted. Not to be used unless you actually need to heal.

10. Descent of Shadows (trait)
It’s strength is that it halves falling damage, so you won’t die from high falls at full health. Downside is that it’s in a traitline full of 3 better adept traits, and it requires you to fall a distance.

11. Instinctual Response (trait)
It’s strength is that if you take more than 10% in a single blow, you get a free stealth through blinding powder. The downside is that just like Last Refuge, it will kick in when you least want it to, usually giving you reveal because you’re attacking at that moment. This one is not mandatory though, and in a traitline with better adepts.

12. Blinding Tuft and Throw Feathers (stolen item)
The strength is that both of these are a free stealth. The downside is that both have to be stolen from an enemy (meaning right enemy and luck), and you can only hold one at any given time.

FLiP.7680:

@OP,

Go to Characters Panel, Create a thief, lvl him up to 80, equip him with exotics, go to WvW, find a Guardian/Warrior/Mesmer/Engineer/Necromancer group, come back here and tell us how easy was that fight for you.

Fix’d, has to add those two since the conditions hurt like hell. Well the engineer since they burst you with conditions and the necromancer because of their 360 degree fighting style. Funny too since they can kill you and play 100% defensively the whole time.

Tao.5096:

…
Introduce Brain item in Gem store.
…

Better have a good manual/instructions on how to use that item, else it won’t get you anywhere…